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Monday, March 6, 2017

Blog Tour: Realms of Edenocht by D.S. Johnson with an #interview

Fantasy

Date Published:July 2016

Shazmpt has been prepared his whole life to complete the prophecy; however until recently, he was unaware of his true identity as a powerful war wizard.Hidden on an island in a time realm not his own, he must now search for ancient relics in order to stop the growing evil in the world. All he wanted was to hunt in his beloved forest, but is thrown into a world of sea serpents, dungeons, enchanted castles, miniature men, and air buffs.Driven by duty and hindered by self-doubt, he is sent on a quest to unite the magical realms once more. He must learn to harness his good and evil powers, but will he survive the shadow…?

Interview

What is the hardest part of writing
your books?

Sitting down to the computer. It’s
true, the hardest part for me is not letting the distractions of life keep me
from writing. I have five kids a husband and a dog, so you know what that
means. I wasn’t always a writer, in fact I graduated high school with a
glorious 2.9 because I worked my but off to get it. I thought I was dumb and
couldn’t learn. I found out later in life that I learn with my hands. Even
years later I let myself get distracted with other thing to avoid the ‘once
painful chore’ of writing, even though I love it, I have to get myself out of
my own way sometimes.

What songs are most played on your
Ipod?

Thomas Bergerson’s Sun and Illusions
albums. I can’t seem to get enough of his music. The energy and passion fuels
my own passion and energy and it puts me in the grove. Before I know it it’s
been the whole day and 10k words.

Do you have critique partners or
beta readers?

I do, I belong to a couple of Facebook
critique pages and some writing groups that are super helpful, but the one I
like the most is FanStory.com. I have learned so much about the writing craft
from the other writers there. I took a break for a while and decided to get
back on and boy did I miss it. Even after two reviews of my final piece they
found things I and my editor missed.

What book are you reading now?

I actually am reading a book called
Raising Cain Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys by San Kindlon P.H.D and
Michael Thompson P.H.D. I have two boys, one 14 and the other 10. My older
children, 25, 24, and 21 are girls so I have read tons about raising girls but
not boys. Even though teenagers are teenagers there is a big difference between
girls and boys. I figured I better get some tools in my belt to make sure I
don’t ruin them completely. I have spent so much time reading and learning
about how to write that I haven’t spent a lot of time reading fantasy books. I
do like The Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind and Wheel of Time by Robert
Jordan. I have a stack of books I would like to read and maybe I’ll get to them
soon.

How did you start your writing
career?

About 15 years ago my mom needed my
siblings and I to intervene on her behalf. She suffers from Parkinson’s disease
and has since she was thirty two years old. I became her guardian and she has
lived with is since. With her illness, she requires a constant eye. She doesn’t
need the physical help yet, but her medicine gives her memory loss and
sometimes paranoias.

Because of that, I have little
options for working outside the home. I currently don’t need to, but I want to
do something, now that my kids are a little older, to contribute. So with some
thoughtful contemplation I received a premonition or inspiration to write a
book. I guffawed and rolled my eyes cuz remember I graduated with a 2.9. But
the thoughts kept coming to me so I decided what the heck. If I failed
miserably then I could say “See I told you so.” And if I don’t then at least
there would be something for my kids to have after I’m gone.

And with that I headed off to
Google. I started my ten year long self-teaching journey. I had to take long
breaks in-between to help kids and life and all, but I found that I deeply love
to write. It wasn’t long ago that I had an epiphany. My younger sister reminded
me of all the stories she would make me tell her at night when we were kids. My
parents divorced when I was a kid and I felt like I had to ‘grow up’ and forgot
all about the pink unicorns and angry witches. So I guess it’s been a part of
me my whole life, I just had to find it again.

My husband and boys are gamers and
so I use a lot of the adventures they experience through the MMORPG’s they play
as well as old forgotten legends as pieces of characters and plot development.
I love watching documentary’s and I love to add those little, ‘hum I didn’t
know that’ to my stories as well.

My next release is going to be an
easy reader for girls ages 8-10. While in my newly remembered skills, I decided
to write a little something for my littlest one. At only five years old, I
wanted to give her something too. The Gardens of Tartary is a fairy tale
inspired folk tale about a King, Queen, Princess, butterfly dragon and a
jealous dragon. My deadline is the end of March. After that I am releasing book
two of my series Realms of Edenocht and a tangent story to the first book. I
hope to make this November. I’m super excited to see where all this takes me
and so far I have enjoyed the adventure.

A little about me, first I want to tell you a story, about a young girl who thought she was dumb. Yes, in the first, second, and third grades this little girl, was in the ‘Resource’ program or ‘Chapter 8’ as I have also heard it called. Even though she was then put in the regular class, she knew all too well by then she was not a smart child. All the way through high school this girl struggled. She graduated with a glorious 2.9. Yes, it was heart breaking for those little numbers to reflect the great struggle and all the efforts she had put forth.

She went on to start beauty school, figuring she wasn’t college material. Suddenly, she learned that she wasn’t dumb after all. She was what is called a kinesthetic learner or ‘hands on’ learner. She LOVED it. She went on to do very well, for many years. Until, life got complicated. She had five children, a husband, and a disabled mother who now required constant care. While contemplating how to earn a little bit of extra income, now that doing hair wasn’t an option, a thought came to her, ‘Write a book’ it said.

She replied by looking around and with her finger pointing at herself, she said, “Who me? I graduated high school with a 2.9 remember?”

The little thought came again, “Yes, you. Write a book.”

It so happened, that she had been telling her children nighttime stories for some time, so she did. It took five years to learn from the internet, a few writing classes, some great blogs, a lot of practice, one very good editor and the awesome support of her family. But she did it, and now I bring The Realms of Edenocht Series to you! Yes, that little girl was me, but no longer.